High tech on the mend?

Tech Bits

STAMFORD, Conn. - The nation's high-tech industry is healing after a severe four-year downturn, with job losses leveling off and exports and investments on the rise, according to a trade group report.

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The industry lost 25,000 jobs last year, compared with 333,000 job losses in 2003 and 612,000 in 2002, according to AeA, which represents 2,500 American high-tech companies.

The industry has lost about 1 million jobs since 2001, when there were 6.6 million jobs. U.S. high-tech exports increased 12 percent last year, and venture capital investments in new technology companies went up for the first time in five years. Some segments of the industry are starting to see job gains, according to the report.

"The good news is that the technology industry looks to have turned a corner," said AeA's president and chief executive, William T. Archey.

The industry still faces challenges, including increased foreign competition and tighter immigration restrictions that make it difficult to hire qualified workers, said Matthew Kazmierczak, research director for AeA.